Advantages of Having Been Dead by: Dr. William Wong, ND, PhD

I've been clinically dead twice.  The first time was a few weeks after my first  communion in 1962.  It happened  returning home from confession, having  freed my soul of all the terrible mortal sins a 7 year old can commit.  I had bet my guardian angel, with whom  I had free and open conversations, that  I could get across Brooklyn's 6th Ave  before the red Chevy van could get to where I was.  He warned me not to;  but the bet was on.  Of course I lost.  The truck hit the right side   of my skull and torso causing immediate loss of consciousness and sending me  flying through the air landing some double digit feet away from the point of contact.  

Anyone  familiar with New York in the 60's may  remember that ambulances then were no  more than chauffeured meat wagons.  There  were none of the  life sustaining devices or care available today.  Emergency  rooms were very different as well.  They were usually staffed by old docs about  to retire or in semi retirement who just  wanted to keep their hand in or make  some money to tide them over.   There were no resuscitation machines, no high  level trauma care, in NYC we did not  even know those existed until we saw  them on TV programs set in California  later that decade.  (And they still  did not make their appearance on the streets and hospitals in there until  the mid 70's)!  

I was  DOA by the time the ambulance got to the hospital and once there my body was placed on a gurney pushed to one side  of a hallway covered over with a white  sheet.   According to the doc there I was quite dead.  

My first  recollection was of a really bad headache  bringing me to consciousness.  On  opening my eyes I saw white.  Not  the white of Heaven but definitely the  white of interior lighting seen though  a cotton sheet.  As is done with   the dead the sheet covered my head.   I remember feeling my hands crossed over  my chest and turning my hands over using  my fingers I drew my fingers against the sheet and cleared it off my face.   I saw the opaque glass globes of lights   hanging from short chains.   Sitting  up slightly and propping myself up with  my elbows I announced that I had a big  headache, which surprised a bald man  who was writing something with his back to me on a counter a few feet away.  He  turned around to look at me,  then  promptly tore up a piece of paper he  was writing on.  The paper may have   been yellow.

My next   passing occurred at 28 during a bout of pneumonia.  Going into respiratory   arrest, I realized I was lifting up from  the bed and being drawn into a tunnel  with what looked like white lights or  portholes running parallel on either  side of the tube.  As I ascended, things got progressively brighter and I was progressing up at quite a speed!  Looking back for a short moment, I worried about  my wife and baby daughter.  A soothing  and reassuring voice told me softly not  to worry everything was taken care of.  At that, I looked back up and proceeded  with not a care.  As I went up I realized I was becoming smarter, and  when I emerged into a beautiful warm  bright light, surrounded by more love  than I could have ever imagined existed,  I realized I knew everything about everything  from the most difficult physics  question  to the secrets of biology.  I knew  everything there was to know and everything was so easy to know!  That was astounding!  

In a  moment, a presence appeared I took to be Jesus.  (Others who have undergone  NDE's have seen their understanding of God or a Buddha / Christ like person).  With  unspeakable levels of love he put an arm around my shoulder and we chatted, him telling me it was not time for me  to be there yet, that I still had work  to do.  I did not want to hear that.  Everything   was so peaceful, loving and beautiful  that I wanted to stay.  Next thing I remember I was going back down the  tube and as things got darker I was losing  the knowledge I had acquired.  The  darker it got the less of my new smarts  I had but I forced myself to remember  that once I had known everything there  was to know and that it was all so easy.  

My soul being slammed back into my body, as I  was forced back to life, I bolted upright  on the bed and started to cry.  I  cried uncontrollably for half an hour, not wanting to be back in the realm of  hardship, pain and deceit.  

Since  my second NDE I've had absolutely no fear of death.  Dying is simply    a change of address.  Since my second   NDE I can't understand anyone fearing death, it's akin to fearing release from  prison!  

So what  am I getting at by relating these two  experiences?  It's simple.  People  are afraid to die.  It's ok for  those  who have no religion, no spirituality and no faith to be afraid.  They don't expect anything after their miserable stay here.  But I've noticed that  people of faith, especially people of  great faith are afraid of death and afraid  to die.  And I'm here to say that despite the circumstances of one's passing, death should be greeted with joy as a  liberation from the pain and tears of  this outpost in the hinterlands of creation.  

If a  person has real faith in the tenets of  their religion, in their concepts of  spirituality, in their beliefs in an afterlife then why should they fear going  there?  A wonderfully gifted spiritual  leader of my acquaintance can manifest   the sent of roses when she prays and connects with God.  Yet this same  gal is afraid of crossing over!  If  you have that connection we all seek with God, why fear the moment of becoming one with Him/Her/It?   

We've  seen this fear lately in the stories  of the peoples reaction to the gal who  was taken off of life support and in  Catholics reaction to the pope being  near death.  They pray or were praying  for the maintenance of  life in  these individuals, regardless of how  miserable, limited, sickly or demeaning that life may have been.  To these “believers” a shade of life, no matter how awful, was preferable to death!  The folks who prayed for this were actually showing  that they did not believe fully in their faith, did not fully believe in an afterlife, did not fully believe in a reward for  having lived a good life. In short that they did not fully believe in the basic fundamental promise of all religions  world wide – an afterlife free  of pain, misery, sickness and trouble.  Whether  it's in the spiritual bliss of the Christian or Bahi Heaven, or the anthropomorphic earthly Moslem paradise, or in the Oneness  and Nirvana of Buddhism, or the end of the cycle of existence of the Hindus, all  who “believe” are promised something as a reward for the pains of  their learning existence on earth.   It  should only be those who have lived a “bad” life filled with the “malum in se”,    i.e. things that are bad in and of themselves,  who should fear death and what comes  after.   The rest of us should   look forward to our release from this “reform  school” with joy and expectation.  

None of this should be taken to condone taking ones own life.  Cutting out of school  early only condemns you to have to repeat  the grade, and if it was a bummer this  time going back and doing it over isn't  going to be any better!  Our passing  from this plane of existence should be  on God's timing, not ours.   

While   I may not be looking forward to the circumstances  of my next transition, hopefully this  time I'll be allowed to stay.  I will be overjoyed to finally be allowed off this near God forsaken rock in space  and get back into my real life.  When   that time comes, be sure to have a rousing  Irish wake and be happy for me!!!